The James Watt Podcast James Watt podcast

Professor Gordon Masterton from the University of Edinburgh ponders the legacy of James Watt during a talk at the Hippodrome Cinema, Bo'ness, in January 2020.

With thanks to staff at Falkirk Community Trust.

James Watt spent half his life in the Birmingham area.

In 2019, a new walking guide was produced to highlight some of the sites associated with James Watt.

Download a PDF here: j.mp/watt-birm-guide

In this episode, we travel to Birmingham to visit places linked with James Watt – two churches, the home of his business partner Matthew Boulton and the impressive home of his son, James Watt Jnr.

James Jnr is widely credited with the widespread memorialisation – and hero worship – of James Watt.

With thanks to

ASTON HALL, SOHO HOUSE, ST PAUL’S CHURCH and ST. MARY’S CHURCH, HANDSWORTH

Music in this podcast: Excerpt from Prelude in C (BWV 846) Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

At the heart of Greenock – on the west coast of Scotland – is a complex which celebrates James Watt, learning and local heritage.

This is the Watt Institution – a series of buildings housing the Watt Library, the Watt Hall and McLean Museum and Art Gallery. 

The buildings cover part of Union Street and Kelly Street in the town.

The Library was established first – to house a memorial statue of the great Greenock-born inventor James Watt and provide a new home for Greenock Library.

The campus was then extended with the help of another architect to create the adjoining Hall and Museum. The final section was opened in 1876.

In recent years the complex has undergone a £2 million refurbishment programme. It reopened to the public in November 2019.

We spoke to Lorraine Murray, the archivist at Inverclyde Archives – part of Inverclyde Council – about the complex.

A new display – inspired by the achievements of the Scottish inventor James Watt – launched at Riverside Museum in Glasgow at the end of 2019.

Watt’s development of the steam engine, 250 years ago, made it more efficient – radically reducing the amount of coal required and driving the Industrial Revolution.

The new display at Riverside, the city’s transport museum is called Going Green – The Drive for Energy Efficiency (sponsored by Aggreko). It considers James Watt’s pioneering spirit and legacy in a modern-day context.

The centrepiece of the exhibit is a Tesla Model S P85+, believed to be the first Tesla acquired by a public museum in Scotland.

It is being shown alongside a rare Honda Insight Mk1, dating back to 2000. It is one of only 239 Mk1s sold in the UK and was the first hybrid car to be acquired for the city’s renowned Transport and Travel collection.

The display also includes an item donated by a modern-day James Watt – that’s James Watt, the founder of the beer company Brewdog. He donated artwork from the firm’s Make Earth Great Again (mega) beer and a bottle of it too.

Researcher Kate Bowell has been looking at how the story of James Watt has been presented to audiences visiting the National Museum of Scotland.

The Museum in Edinburgh is home to a Boulton and Watt engine, which takes pride of place in one of the first floor galleries.

Kate has been examining labels and interpretative text used by the Museum to explain Watt’s story. She spoke about her work at the recent STICK conference in Stirling’s Engine Shed in 2019.

She said – over time – progressive labels used by the museum praised Watt “more and more”. She says: “He becomes not just an inventor, but a genius.” Then “he moves from being a genius to being one of Scotland’s greatest minds of all time …. ”

She also noted that after the 1960s, Watt wasn’t put on “as high a pedestal” by museum staff. Listen to her talk about her work here.

Podcast produced by The PR Store

The Boulton and Watt engine on show at the National Museum of Scotland in Chambers Street in Edinburgh is one of the oldest surviving beam engines in the world.

The metal and wood structure – weighing 20 tonnes – was made in London by Scottish inventor James Watt and dates from 1786.

In this podcast, curator Ellie Swinbank tells you more about the exhibit, which is one of the key displays in the Science and Technology section of the museum.

Visit the Museum website for more information.